“HYBE, you guys are protecting your artists, right?”

HYBE seemingly revealed that ILLIT was the group that was allegedly instructed to ignore Hanni.

On September 13, a post titled “Wow HYBE ILLIT’s Manager Was Exposed” went viral. The post has since been viewed over 171K times.

In the post, the author asks, “Did you see HYBE’s response? They responded to allegations a manager told a group to ignore NewJeans and although they denied that the manager told the group to ignore, they stated it involved an ILLIT manager.” The author then posted a portion of HYBE’s response.

According to HYBE, after reviewing the 7-8 minutes-long interaction through CCTV, they found that ILLIT members and Hanni greeted each other and that the manager did not make the alleged problematic statement. — Hankook Kyungjae

The author then goes on to criticize HYBE for seemingly implicating ILLIT.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s important which group’s manager did that, but is HYBE crazy? Why are they implicating ILLIT and involving them in the controversy again? They are just using them as a shield.

Does HYBE even respect their artists? Seeing how they implicate NewJeans, ILLIT, and LE SSERAFIM, it doesn’t seem like they do. Wouldn’t LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT’s fans lose faith in HYBE? I feel so bad for the idols. Is it okay that HYBE does this? — Author.

Netizens responded to the post by criticizing HYBE. Many stated how HYBE’s actions were inexcusable.

• “I think they’re crazy. I can’t believe that they’d expose the group when Hanni herself didn’t say which group it was. Also, how would a CCTV capture a manager’s words? Seriously, they are the best at using their artists as a meat shield.”
• “How can you still defend HYBE when the label is the one bringing criticism towards ILLIT.”
• “They exposed them, LOL. HYBE, you guys are protecting your artists, right?”
• “To be honest, HYBE hasn’t done anything to help ILLIT and has only brought on criticism towards them. Why would you think HYBE will protect their artists when they are the ones to keep bringing up controversies and making them bigger?”
• “HYBE is f*cking gross, seriously.”

What are your thoughts?